The vast and murky ocean of human emotions is extremely easy to find yourself ruled over and capsized under when you don’t have the proper tools to master them. Some days, you may find yourself fighting a losing battle against the waves of anger, dealing with someone you find particularly irritating, later sinking into regret after possibly making a bad choice in that moment.

Other days, you’ll be drowning under a tsunami of suppressed and unprocessed emotions at the end of what felt like the worst day of your life. 

It is imperative to find ways to work with and traverse the flow of emotions in our daily lives before we are overtaken and wrecked by them. I find that journaling has given me a way to acknowledge and understand my emotions in a healthy manner. Here are some ways journaling can improve your life. 

Improves mental and emotional well-being 

Journaling offers a place to release the flood of your feelings from being bottled up inside. Instead of letting them build up pressure and clog your mind and thoughts, you are able to put them onto paper and properly identify them, lightening the mental load as you are allowing yourself to say and properly acknowledge your feelings. 

You will find that having them splayed out in front of you chips away at any building sadness, resentment, irritation, etc, giving you the opportunity to regulate yourself back to a neutral standpoint in your internal world. This leaves you with a clear mind and more stable emotional well-being to properly approach the rest of your day.

It can heighten self-awareness

After a while of documenting and observing your thoughts and feelings, you begin to develop a sense of awareness of things that cause you strong reactions, which you may have missed before. You are writing down and actively observing patterns in your thought process, making constant connections to times you may have felt the same way in the past.

Once this connection is made, you can make the proper changes and adjustments necessary to lessen the frequency of you finding yourself in similar circumstances that cause said reaction, or come up with a plan to handle the feeling should it come up again. 

This will help you grow on a personal level as you come to better understand yourself, your boundaries, and alternatives to better approach any situation.

It offers a judgement-free space

One of the best things about journaling is the fact that there are no rules to it. There is no right or wrong way to go about it, and you have the freedom to do whatever you want. 

The societal pressures/expectations to perform and act as if everything is okay, even when you feel terrible or upset, are nonexistent when it comes to journaling. It offers a sanctuary to be as raw or as unfiltered as you need to be. There’s no one breathing down your neck, judging you for how you feel, or tone policing you for saying something in a way that may not be socially acceptable.

It’s your space, you have control over what you want to write or say, and you can do so freely without the fear of backlash for it.

It’s good for accomplishing goals

People are more likely to pay attention to and work towards a goal that they write down and plan for. 

When writing out your goals, you are creating a solid vision for what it is that you are hoping to achieve. This vision strengthens motivation because you have now created a clear objective to work toward. With this end goal in mind, it tends to be easier to set up smaller tasks you can take over time to move you closer to what you hope to accomplish.

It also places a large amount of responsibility on you. Setting your intentions this way will act as a visible callback to your commitment, pushing you to want to achieve it and not give up on yourself.

Can act as IRL memory storage

Humans are forgetful creatures; it’s a fact of life. However, instead of being caught off guard by an event or beating yourself up because you forgot about something important, journaling can offer a place to document important things to remember. 

It’s been stated that people are more likely to recall what they’ve written down. In fact,

When you write down information, your brain is actively processing and summarizing it. And because it works with the information this way, you are better able to retain it.

Also, as previously stated, writing it down physically means you have a higher chance of seeing what you wrote down and recall it that way.

Yes, there will be times when it feels like going against the current of emotions is impossible, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. It won’t be easy, and by no means is picking up journalism going to offer an immediate fix. However, if you are willing to put in the time and effort, I can say that progress will be guaranteed over time. 

Thanks for reading!